Dark Night

by Stefany Rattles

  He walked to the door. I was surprised at what they had decided, and shocked with his looks. He was leaving, “How long?” I asked.

  “Three, four, or five months,” He answered without turning. “I’m sorry.” He said opening the door.

  “So am I.” I whispered, and he was gone.

  CHAPTER 14

  Days, weeks, a month, three months past, and I was doing good in school, and everything seemed to get easier. Genevieve didn’t bother, bothering me, since Robert left she ignored me and I ignored her. My friends and I hung out a lot, even though we all had boyfriends. We’ve had good times. Two weeks after Robert had left we had elections for the student body president. No one has won yet, to my surprise I was nominated, among others like, Genevieve, Mereily, Delilah, Anna, Marcus, Jack, Payton, and Jordan. I had been making a lot of progress talking to students, getting to know them better. I guess I had not realized how popular I was becoming myself. I sat in my room studying for a test I had Monday, it was barely Friday but I was bored. The doorbell rang. I walked to it, and opened it.

  “Here you go.” The same lady that delivers mail and other things gave me an envelope.

  “Thanks Lucy.” I said to her, she nodded and left. I closed the door, and sat on the couch. The envelope only had the institutes’ address, I opened it carefully. It was a letter, from Mylian:

  “Dear Mia,

  We have found your Aunt Julissa and cousin Deidre they have joined us and are very pleased to know you’re in good hands. Your cousin Deidre was chosen to attend to an institute in New York, while your aunt will remain in England. This happened a month ago, we were not able to notify you before, until now. Julissa will be a great help to me, we are going to find the others. Hopefully they understand what we are, and they will too be welcome. I hope you are doing good, I’ll let you know if we find them.

  Sincerely, Mylian”

  I was glad to know that my aunt and cousin were okay, with one thing less to worry about I put the letter away. My cell phone rang and I recognized the number on my caller id. It was Jack. Jack and I had become very close. We were going out now, though we were more like friends. I answered his call.

  “Hello?” I said.

  “Hey! Are you ready to go to the movies?” Jack asked me. I had forgotten that he had set up an evening to go out.

  “Not quite, don’t worry I’ll be ready in ten minutes. Okay?”

  “Take your time, we still have a while. I think.” He thought.

  “I’ll meet you in the lobby then?”

  “Perfect… Oh babe, you think you can go by Anna’s room and pick up my umbrella, she borrowed it and I need it back, it’s raining outside.”

  “Sure. I’ll see you then.” I hung up. Anna and I were talking more, for the first few weeks after Robert had left she was helping me with the injections of the V2. We weren’t friends yet. But were talking and I had convinced her to run for the elections. And she did.

  I changed into something more comfortable, a pair of high waist jeans (that were in) with a violet blouse that showed my back, who no one would see because of my hair. I wore one inch heels and left my hair down. I was ready. I got my coat and purse and walked to Anna’s room. She opened the door and smiled.

  “Hi. Jack said if he could borrow his umbrella? We’re going out, and it’s raining.” I told her.

  “Hold on.” She looked around. I had been in her room a couple of times. She liked black a lot more than I thought but she also liked hot pink. Her comforter was a hot pink color with a huge black skull in the middle. She had paintings of nothing, they were just colorful paintings. Blacks, white and hot pink decorated everything from the curtain to the clock on her desk. Anna was also a full vampire. She had told me they had sent her away for a few weeks to a university where they had special training for new vampires. She was done with her training, now she was just finishing school, she had also told me that there are a few others who are full vampires, but you wouldn’t notice, they wouldn’t make a big deal out of it. Because they are royals, no one looks at them differently, if anything they are admired. Anna was different though, I believed there was something she was hiding, a dark secret she didn’t want to share. I could understand her…maybe we would be good friends someday.

  “Here.” She said. “Tell him thanks.” I felt bad that she never went out, except for necessary things, so I invited her to come along.

  “You want to come with us? It’ll be fun! We’re going to see a movie.”

  “That’s cool of you, but I’ll take a rain check this time.” She still wasn’t comfortable with company.

  “I’m throwing a slumber party, for all times sake next Friday and you’re invited. It’ll be in my room at seven and only girls.”

  She thought about it for a second, “Ummm. I don’t know….”

  “It’s only going to be me, Mereily, Sophie, and Delilah…”

  “All right.. I guess it wouldn’t hurt.” She smiled slightly. “Do I need to bring anything?”

  “Nope, just yourself,” I said.

  I walked down to the lobby holding the gray umbrella that Anna had borrowed. I found Mereily and Jordan holding hands, Delilah and Payton standing by Jack.

  “Where’s Sophie?” I greeted each one. Finally gave my boyfriend a quick peck.

  “She said she had her own plans, maybe next time.” Mereily shrugged, the institute provided transportation to any place we wanted to go. The school chauffer in his Escalade drove us to the main cinema a few blocks away from the institute. We got off and walked to the ticket booth. It was sunset, and there weren’t many people out, I guessed it was because of the rain. We had gone to see a movie every two weeks and it was becoming something we did all the time. Jack held me close to him, and I was happy. He was a very flirty guy, and I wasn’t but I tried to do my best.

  “You look gorgeous.” He complimented me all the time, and it made me tingle.

  “And you’re handsome as always.” I had to admit, he was a hot guy and girls would die to go out with him. But he didn’t care, he had told me many times he only had eyes for me. He was sweet.

  We were in a line to see the premiere of the Terminator Salvation. I really liked the terminator movies, they were awesome. We sat in the very last row. The movie still had ten minutes till it started and everybody was involved in their own little conversation.

  “Mia, I have a personal question I’d like to ask you, if you don’t mind?” Jack held me close to him.

  “Yes?”

  “It’s very personal, I mean very very… personal.” He exaggerated.

  “Just spit it out.” I told him, glancing around and seeing that nobody was paying attention to us.

  “Promise you won’t be mad. It’s not what you’re going to think, I’m just… curious.” He warned.

  “Promise I won’t.” I gave him a kiss on the cheek. He blushed.

  “Okay… I’m just going to ask you straight up. Have you ever… you know… had sex?” My mouth fell open.

  “Excuse me?” I blurted out.

  “I knew you’d be mad.” He pulled away, and leaned back on the seat. Everyone was too busy to notice anything. I straightened up.

  “I’m not... mad. I just don’t understand why you want to know…” I whispered.

  “Honestly, because I’m going to be with you forever and I’d like to get to know you in and out, it is important. Not that we’re going to do anything, any time soon. But still... you know?” He said sincerely.

  “If you must know… No. I’ve never…ever, no. I haven’t yet.” I blushed and looked down. He lifted my chin up and smiled.

  “I have… once. A very long time ago, when I was sixteen, I wanted to know what it felt like and the opportunity presented itself. It was with a girl that I went out for two years. After that night she broke up with me, she told me how un-experienced I was and how too good she was for me. She got with a guy two years older than me, but it doesn’t matter now. I just wanted you to know.
Actually, she goes to school with us, she’s a grade younger than us. We’ll stop talking about that now I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.” He was still blushing.

  “I’m fine. I’m glad you’re honest with me. I like that about you. Anyway, who is she, what’s her name__” I was interrupted by the previews of the movie that was about to start.

  We didn’t continue the conversation, but instead paid full attention to the movie. It was good, even though Arnold was only in it for a few minutes we watched it with wide eyes. My friends commented on scenes and giggled and had fun in general.

  When the movie ended, Jack surprised me with a kiss that was very intense to be in public. But instead of my friends grossing out, they awed. We decided that night wasn’t over yet, it was nearly ten. And curfew was at eleven. We went to a diner, where we bought shakes and curly fries.

  “What are we doing tomorrow?” Asked Payton, he was a tall guy, he used to be a football player. His hair was a white blonde with bright green eyes. He was okay, though in Delilah’s face you could see how much she adored him.

  “Maybe just hang out at the pool, how about it?” Jordan said. He was slender and cute. He had a baby face, he looked sixteen, when he really was nineteen. His hair was dark and spiked up, his eyes hazel. And he had a slight accent that everybody liked. Mereily and him made a good couple.

  “A pool party?” Jack asked.

  “Like the Elder’s is going let us throw a party for no reason?” Delilah interrupted their plans.

  “Lilah hon‘, they will because we’re royals.” Payton reminded her. She just shook her head.

  CHAPTER 15

  Back at the institute we said good night. Jack walked me to my room.

  “You want to come in?” I asked him.

  “Sure...” I led him in, he had never been inside my room before. No guys had, besides Robert, except for God Frederick.

  “You want something to drink?” I asked him, while he sat on the couch.

  “No. I’m good.” He smiled. I sat with him, and turned the TV on. The news was on, and it was like Deja vu all over again. Robert had sat exactly on the same spot Jack was sitting in and watching the same thing, I had to push that thought away, what was I thinking?

  Then the lights went out. “What the hell?” Jack and I said at the same time.

  “The lights never go out here. We have two emergency generators and one of them is automatic, if the lights go out they come on. We wouldn’t have noticed.” He stood up. “Where’re the flashlights?”

  “They’re in the first cabinet on the right.” I told him. I couldn’t even see him, so I remained seated. I heard him search through the cabinet and then opened a drawer. A light went on.

  “Here.” He gave me a flashlight.

  “Let’s go check out the others.” He held my hand. We opened the door and heard voices. “They’re in the main hall.” We walked around the corner to find students with flashlights panicking. A loud scream came from the bottom floor and everyone froze including us. We listened intently but didn’t hear anything else. Students walked towards the stairs and stood at the edge pointing their flashlight down. We all did, but didn’t see a thing.

  “Everyone, listen! We don’t know what that was, but I think we should return to our dorms, and lock the doors. Call your God or Goddess so they can figure it out.” Genevieve said to the crowd of students.

  “Are you sure?” A guy that I couldn’t see had asked.

  “Positive, if something is wrong, we’re just making it easy, standing here.” The girl had a point. We turned around and started walking towards my room when someone caught my hand. I jumped back.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. You guys want to come with us?” Mereily offered, she was with Jordan, Delilah, Payton, Sophie and a boy she was seeing Mike.

  “Sure.” I said as we followed them back to her room. She closed the door and locked both locks. She lit some candles and we left three flashlights on. The room was a little bright, enough to see our faces.

  “Does anyone know what happened?” Sophie asked scared. Mike put his arm around her.

  “No clue. The lights never go out here, ever.” Mike told her.

  “Did you hear that scream? What if there’s a murderer on campus? Like you know, Urban Legend? Or something…” Mereily voice cracked. She did bring me back memories of that movie. And the thoughts of it being true sent chills down my back.

  We all sat on Mereily’s’ bed in a circle, just like in a campfire.

  “Don’t be so dramatic. It was just a scream, I’m sure some girl was walking towards here, when the lights went out on her, and maybe she decided to turn around or found someone else. But what is weird is that no God, Goddess, or Elder has come to tell us what’s up.” Delilah was the least afraid of the girls. I was a chicken, but I wouldn’t say I was simply because if I told them my theories about what happened then it would be worse. Instead I relaxed and didn’t think about it, to remain positive.

  “I’m sure they’ll be up here soon.” Payton squeezed her arm. Just then, the lights appeared to come on, but slightly.

  “It’s the backup generator.” Jordan informed us of what some knew as they nodded.

  “Jack, you want to check out downstairs?” Payton asked him.

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you guys to go down there. If the generator is working, then they should be announcing something on the intercom.” Delilah’s voice was of worry.

  “Hon, we’ll be alright, we can see now plus we got flashlights. We’ll be right back, if we take more than fifteen minutes call me.” Payton said, giving her a quick kiss, while she pouted. I turned to Jack and gave him a hug, as I handed him a flashlight.

  “Be careful.” I told them as they left us with Jordan, and Mike. We waited to what seemed a life time. Only five minutes had passed and already, we were all standing and pacing.

  “This just doesn’t make any sense. It‘s not raining anymore, so no power outages that could of caused the entire campus to lose power, and for the automatic generator to not work, something is fishy..” Mike concluded.

  “I agree, I haven’t been here long, but so far, every single little thing that goes on, it’s like they know, and they act quickly.” I told him.

  “There was something…” Jordan began to say.

  “What is it?” Mereily asked him when all our eyes turned to him.

  “I don’t know exactly. But it seems like there was an attack at one of our schools, in Colorado last week. I overheard the secretary at the front office speaking to Goddess Illyanne about it.”

  “What?” We all said in unison.

  He flinched. “All I heard was what the secretary said to Illyanne.” He paced.

  “Exactly, what did she say?” I asked frustrated, for him not saying anything before we had sent our boyfriends outside.

  He stopped pacing and faced me. “Exactly? The secretary was on the phone. She hung up and Illyanne walked by her, the secretary stopped her, and whispered to her “Knightdale Institute was just confirmed to be attacked last week.” Illyanne nodded and kept walking. That was it.” He told us step by step. Our mouths fell open in disbelief.

  “You Moron! Why didn’t you tell us sooner? Payton and Jack are out___” Before Delilah could finish shouting at Jordan, someone was banging on the door. And everyone let a loud scream out.

  “It’s us! Open it!” Jack and Payton were trying to get in. It took my friends a minute to recover, while I let them in.

  “You won’t believe what we saw!” Jack sounded frightened.

  “What did you see?” Delilah clung on to Payton.

  “Blood! All over the hall, off the stairs. There wasn’t a body or anything, just blood. Whoever it was, it left. There were footsteps heading towards the emergency exit. Once you’re out you can’t get back in, unless of course the lights go out again. But that’s unlikely. We bumped into God Frederick, he was hidden walking around. He told us to stay in our rooms u
ntil they get the police, and the rest of our guards here to make sure that it’s clear.” Payton said.

  “Maybe it was that girl’s blood, the one that screamed!” Sophie said terrified.

  “No. it was odd. Because it didn’t look like someone was killed, more like someone was deliberately putting blood on the walls and only the walls for some reason.” Jack was calmer.

  “Guy’s, I think it’s a sick joke. Someone is playing a sick joke with the schools, but I’m not worried about it. If you say the cops are coming and the guards are too, then they’ll find whoever did that. And trust me they’ll take care of it.” Delilah sounded unconcerned, while Sophie and Mereily wore a scared cat look on their face. But Jack kept it cool.

  “If you girls don’t mind, could we crash here for the night?” Jack asked them.

  “Of course, we want you to stay with us!” Mereily said, she took out some sleeping bags and handed them to us. They were big enough to hold two people in. Jack like a gentleman let me sleep in my own bag, while he slept on another. Delilah and her boyfriend slept in one. Mike on another alone, while Sophie slept on hers. Mereily and Jordan shared the last one. The beds were empty. It was hard to fall asleep because of the guys snoring. When I finally did, I dreamt about Robert.

  CHAPTER 16

  I stood above the sea on the top of a ship, taking in my surroundings. It was sunset, the view was beautiful. Mixtures of blue, orange, and purple highlighted the sky at a distance. There was a table setting, where two chairs sat. A black table top covered the table with red napkins and plates, silverware that was laying on it with two crystals like goblets. I was wearing a blood red dress that was silky and strapless, short above my knees. Standing with his back to me, was the most gorgeous, handsome, man I had ever seen. With his hair perfectly combed back, wearing a Ralph Lauren tuxedo, with his hands crossed behind him, he stood there looking like a dark angel from heaven. I was only ten feet away from him. Before I could take a step towards him, he spoke.